Former ‘SNL’ Actress Victoria Jackson on Political Bias at Anniversary Show: “Is Lorne Ashamed of Me?”

Victoria Jackson, a six-year veteran of Saturday Night Live, is publicly wondering if her opposition to gay marriage prompted Lorne Michaels to treat her differently than the other cast members who attended the 40th anniversary of the show Sunday.

Jackson, on her Facebook page, Twitter and in interviews, has mostly raved about Michaels and thanked the creator of SNL numerous times for hiring her in 1986, though she is also saying that she was the only castmember at Sunday’s event to be banished to an overflow room.

Some bloggers noted the oddity and were wondering if Michaels or someone else involved with the seating arrangements might have been sending a political message to Jackson, who is a Christian conservative, a Tea Party favorite and an extremely vocal critic of President Barack Obama.

While Jackson herself has been downplaying politics, she did speculate on a radio show Tuesday that her views about homosexuality might have played a role.

“I was the only castmember put in the overflow room,” Jackson told radio host Rusty Humphries. She said cast SNL alum Robert Smigel also noted that she was the only castmember in the lesser room.

A source close to the show told The Hollywood Reporter that there was no political bias involved at all. In fact, Jackson was offered a seat in the main studio, but when she alerted NBC that she might arrive late, her seat was moved to a nearby viewing space so that she would not interrupt the live show.

But Jackson said on the radio show that she arrived around the same time as Al Sharpton and actor Alan Cumming, and she even recalled complimenting Cumming, a gay man, on his book.

“He didn’t know whether to be nice to me or not,” she said. “I think the gay community is really mad at me for saying Glee shouldn’t have homosexual themes in primetime for children.”

Later in the interview she noted that there were “token” conservatives in the audience, including Sarah Palin and Donald Trump, and she further speculated about her exclusion from the main room: “The only thing I can think of is the gay thing, because it’s such a strong movement. Maybe Lorne was like, ‘Where do we sit Victoria?'”

Much of the spreading rumor of political bias, though, is being fueled by an Inside Edition interview of Jackson, though the gymnast-comedienne said that the interview was edited in such a way as to make it look like she was accusing SNL of mistreating her because she is a conservative.

Inside Edition “twisted my story a bit,” Jackson wrote at her website. “Inside Edition also left out the part where I said that several people in the celebrity crowd whispered to me that they share my political views.”

She also wrote: “So, it’s still a mystery. Did Lorne Michaels’ beautiful 20-year-old assistant make a mistake and hand me the wrong bracelet? Was I blacklisted for disagreeing with the president/media’s ideology? Was it because I am a Christian? Is it because I believe in the Biblical definition of marriage and publicly spoke out against homosexual themes in primetime TV shows? Is Lorne ashamed of me?”

Her lengthy post included video of her very first skit on SNL, which is embedded below, as is audio of the radio interview.

Email: Paul.Bond@THR.com